Pipe making up pipelines is frequently wrapped with tapes of various kinds which serve to protect the pipe from corrosion and other chemical effects of soil, moisture, and weather, and the like. Many pipe wrapping tapes have an adhesive applied to one side and are of a self-adhesive character, so that a backing strip or tape must be used to cover the sticky side of the pipe wrapping tape in order that it can be supplied in roll form and can be readily unwound from the roll. Peeling the backing strip from the tape and disposal of the backing strip after it has been peeled from the tape along the pipeline right of way has been a problem, and is usually accomplished by manually pulling the backing from the tape as the tape is unwound onto the pipe from a roll of tape supported by a spindle on the pipe wrapping machine, and then periodically cutting or tearing off lengths of the backing collected in wads and throwing it aside along the pipeline right of way. The discarded backing must then be picked up for disposal, and it frequently happens that it is left to litter and clutter the pipeline right of way.